A blog about business in Fort Worth and North Texas, by the staff of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

02/14/2013

North Texas lags in solar power, environmental group says

San Antonio and Austin are using their municipal power companies to push solar electricity generation, and other Texas cities should do the same, Austin-based Environment Texas says in a new study released Thursday. Oncor, North Texas' biggest electricity distributor, has the most solar capacity installed by customers on its grid among local distribution systems in the state, the study shows. But Austin Energy and CPS Energy, the muni serving the San Antonio area, account for nearly 90 percent of the utility-supported installations of solar generation. The numbers on a per-customer basis are still tiny. Austin Energy is the leader with 99 watts per account, followed by CPS Energy with 73 watts. A link to the group's summary of the report is here.